Castelvania has always followed a simple storyline. Dracula is revived and the Belmont clan must go and kill him--until he gets resurrected again anyways. But the latest installment does away with all that and reboots the entire franchise. In conjunction with Kojima Productions, this is MercurySteam's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.You play as Gabriel Belmont, a knight in an order that was founded to fight against the minions of hell. Darkness has covered the lands and Gabriel must find a way to repel the darkness. In his adventure, he comes to learn of a mask that has the power to potentially revive his lost wife. The mask has three pieces, with each piece being held by a "lord of shadow."
Castlevania is certainly in the running for "most epic game" of this year. The first thing you'll notice is how amazing the graphics are. There's impeccable craftsmanship in the environments. The textures are sharp and extremely detailed. The world is immaculate, imaginative, and twisted. The enemy designs are outstanding and the animation overall is superb. The lighting is moody, ambient, and fantastic. If it weren't for the dodgy framerate, Lords of Shadows would easily take the graphics crown on consoles. The presentation overall is extremely polished. The music is amazing, and this combined with the visuals make for some breath-taking scenes.
I'm gushing quite a lot about the presentation, so does that bode well for the actual gameplay? Many of the mechanics are borrowed from other games (most notably from God of War) although the game does throw in a few differentiating wrinkles. There's the standard assortment of light and heavy attacks, blocking and dodge rolls, and jump abilities. By gathering orbs leftover from slain enemies or broken pots, you can upgrade your move sets. An interesting twist is the light and dark mechanic where you can activate powers to enhance your combat abilities. Activating dark powers increases your damage while activating light powers increases your healing. By alternating between the two, as well as dodging, blocking, and parrying, you can make short work of the enemies.
The enemies are plucked from the series' history but with updated 3D designs. Ghouls, goblins, giant spiders, vampires, trolls, and ghost armors are just some of the baddies you'll encounter, each with their own patterns of attacks and nuances to exploit. In between battles, you'll have to solve puzzles and platform in order to advance in the stage.
You'll also have access to subweapons like the classic dagger as well as new ones. You can throw out fairies that distract enemies as you build up combo or shatter special crystals for a one-hit kill summon. The game is challenging, even on normal, and some of the puzzles will have you scratching your heads. Most puzzles involve pushing items around and activating switches through various means.
Castlevania is all about adventure, and Lords of Shadow has that in spades. You'll trek across an incredibly diverse range of environments from rainy forests, frozen lakes, dark swamps, enormous castles, to rocky netherworlds. The campaign is fairly lengthy, taking more than 15 hours to complete.
Lords of Shadow is an even mix between adventure and action. Touchy platforming controls hurts the level navigation a bit and combat isn't as sophisticated or flexible as in other games, but it manages to carve out its own rhythm. Despite the niggling issues, Lords of Shadows is a fine game and puts every other 3D Castlevania to shame.
